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Ocean Wild Things

Antarctic Marine Mammals

December 2, 2009 by Carolyn Kraft 4 Comments

After a journey with the Antarctic fur seal, the Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals features Antarctic marine mammals in general. These robust marine mammals live within the Antarctic convergence, an invisible natural border where the extremely cold Southern Ocean meets warmer water from the north. Most marine mammals who live further north do not cross this… [read more]

Filed Under: Dolphins, Marine mammals, Seals, sea lions, Whales Tagged With: cetacean, dolphin, endangered, krill, pinniped, seal, sealing, whale, whaling

Antarctic Fur Seals

November 24, 2009 by Carolyn Kraft Leave a Comment

Antarctic fur seals or Acrtocephalus gazella hang out in intense cold around islands in the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans near Antarctica. Simlar to other pinnipeds, Antarctic fur seals possess an intense sexual dimorphism in size between males and females. According to the Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals, males are 1.5 times longer and weigh four… [read more]

Filed Under: Marine mammals, Seals, sea lions Tagged With: blastocyst, diapause, harem, pinniped, seal, sexual dimorphism

Albino Marine Mammals: the ghosts of the sea

November 8, 2009 by Carolyn Kraft Leave a Comment

According to the Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals, albinos have been spotted in 28 species of marine mammals. This number breaks down to 21 cetaceans and seven pinnipeds with albinos among their ranks. Albinos are most well known for their white or very pale coloring and pink eyes or at least that’s what I thought. But according… [read more]

Filed Under: Dolphins, Marine mammals Tagged With: cetacean, dolphin, elephant seal, pinniped, porpoise, sea lion, seal, whale

Aggressive Behavior in Marine Mammals: can’t we all just get along

November 7, 2009 by Carolyn Kraft Leave a Comment

Reading the article on aggressive behavior in the Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals is a serious downer. Don’t get me wrong, most of the information is standard wild animal behavior, which the author, Claudio Campagna, nicely summarizes in the introduction. “Aggressive or agonistic behaviors represent a conglomerate of social responses, including male disputes over territorial boundaries, female fights to protect… [read more]

Filed Under: Marine mammals, Seals, sea lions Tagged With: body language, cetacean, elephant seal, pinniped, sea lion, seal, sexual dimorphism

Abundance Estimations for Marine Mammals: nailing the numbers

November 3, 2009 by Carolyn Kraft 1 Comment

After reading about abundance estimation, I have a new found respect for the population estimates of marine mammals… the all important numbers that tell us how certain species are doing and whether they are recovering or declining. These seemingly plain numbers fail to convey the detailed back story involved for each total. Counting animals who… [read more]

Filed Under: Marine mammals Tagged With: cetacean, dolphin, pinniped, porpoise, sea lion, seal, whale

Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals: Blogging from A to Z

November 2, 2009 by Carolyn Kraft 1 Comment

There it is sitting on my desk, all 1,316 pages…the Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals. Now this is no ordinary book, this book explains everything you ever wanted to know about marine mammals and then some. With more than 250 expert scientists and researchers contributing, it is a treasure trove of information. And for marine mammal obsessed people… [read more]

Filed Under: Marine mammals Tagged With: cetacean, dolphin, pinniped, porpoise, sea lion, seal, whale

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